Brief Description Of The Prior Art
It has been previously proposed to pivotally secure a ripper tooth to the back side of a backhoe in a position such that the tooth can penetrate into the soil, particularly at a time when the backhoe is tucked or folded upwardly. The ripper tooth carries a sharp point cap and this enables it to slice deeply into the ground, or even through hard material in the soil. By reason of the pivotal mounting of the tooth on the backhoe, it can be pivoted about a horizontal axis to an operative position in which the point extends downwardly and slightly forward at a time when the bucket carrying the tooth at its rear side is tucked upwardly in a stored or inactive position by the use of hydraulic cylinders and in a conventional fashion.
The ripper tooth carries a small aperture through the tooth which permits it to be pinned between a pair of ears secured to the rear side of the backhoe at a time when it is desired to keep the digger tooth in an inoperative juxtaposition relative to the backhoe.
One of the problems with the described tooth of the prior art is the manner in which a load is transmitted through the ripper tooth to its pivotal axis on the backhoe, and to a blunt end formed on the top side of the ripper tooth at a location above the pivotal axis where the top of the tooth contacts the bucket of the backhoe. It has been found that the hard metal of the ripper tooth at this blunt end location can wear into and damage the backhoe, per se, and particularly, an appended coupling linkage which has been developed recently by a backhoe manufacturer to permit the backhoe arm to be quickly engaged and disengaged with backhoe buckets of differing sizes.